HISTORY’S BIGGEST PIRATE MYTHS

PIRATES BURIED THEIR TREASURE

There is a long-standing idea that pirates buried their treasure and left maps enabling them to find it later. However, this is a myth. The origins of this commonly held belief stem from a story concerning the pirate Captain William Kidd (c1655–1701), who tried to escape a spell of imprisonment by writing a letter to the governor of New York and Massachusetts, Lord Bellomont, claiming that he had buried a cache of gold and jewels on Gardiner’s Island, just off the coast of New York. Somehow, newspapers got wind of the story and rumours of Kidd’s riches spread like wildfire. However, the search was unsuccessful – there was nothing to be found. Years later, it would serve as the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous novel , only serving to.